分类： health

As the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season gets underway, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has issued an urgent call to governments across the Americas to revisit their disaster contingency frameworks and ramp up readiness measures. The goal is to shield regional health systems from cascading harms triggered by hurricanes, flash floods, landslides and other extreme weather events that routinely hit the hemisphere.

Current long-range forecasts suggest the 2026 storm season will be less active than the unusually intense periods recorded in recent years, but PAHO has stressed that this milder projection does not eliminate risk. Even one single powerful hurricane, the organization notes, can upend routine health care delivery and create severe, widespread threats to public health that outlast the storm itself.

“Extreme hydrometeorological events remain a constant threat across the Americas,” stated Leonardo Hernández, director of PAHO’s Emergency Operations Unit. “Preparing health systems before an emergency strikes is non-negotiable if we want to save lives, keep critical care accessible to all those who need it, and cut down on the disproportionate harm these events inflict on the most vulnerable populations.”

Beyond the immediate destruction of critical health infrastructure and the interruption of essential services like vaccinations and chronic disease management, hurricanes and subsequent flooding create a cascade of secondary public health risks. These include elevated rates of waterborne illnesses such as cholera and typhoid, increased transmission of vector-borne diseases spread by mosquitoes, higher rates of respiratory infections from damp, crowded post-storm living conditions, a surge in storm-related injuries, and long-term negative mental health outcomes for affected communities. The public health emergencies sparked by extreme weather also add unplanned, overwhelming strain to health systems that are already operating at or beyond capacity in many parts of the region.

To address these risks, PAHO is urging all at-risk countries to verify that every level of their health system has up-to-date contingency plans, fully trained emergency response personnel, and clear cross-agency coordination mechanisms in place. These systems are critical to ensuring essential health services can continue operating during a storm and recover quickly in its aftermath. The organization also recommends expanding disease surveillance infrastructure and community-based monitoring networks, which enable early detection and rapid response to the unique public health risks that follow extreme weather events.

According to forecast data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season is projected to see below-normal activity, largely driven by the formation of El Niño conditions in the Pacific. El Niño, defined by above-average sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern Pacific, typically creates wind patterns that suppress the formation of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin. However, PAHO points out that El Niño also reshapes rainfall and temperature trends across the Americas, increasing the chance of extreme events including droughts, intense downpours, flooding and landslides across different subregions of the hemisphere, even when hurricane activity is low.

Preparedness takes on added urgency in 2026 due to the region’s ongoing epidemiological context, PAHO says. Countries across the Americas are already responding to ongoing outbreaks of measles and yellow fever, and must maintain readiness for other emerging and re-emerging public health threats. When a climate emergency overlaps with existing infectious disease outbreaks, health systems are quickly stretched beyond their breaking point, crippling their ability to meet the sudden surge in demand for care during and after an extreme weather event.

To support national governments in their preparedness work, PAHO will host a virtual regional readiness meeting on June 11, bringing together representatives from health ministries and national disaster risk management agencies from every country in the Americas. The gathering will focus on updating and strengthening protocols for health service management, epidemiological surveillance, and emergency operations, while integrating key lessons identified during previous extreme weather and public health events.

The meeting will also advance the implementation of the World Health Organization’s 2025 National Health Emergency Preparedness, Alert and Response Framework. This global framework promotes a multi-hazard approach to emergency readiness built around five core functional systems: collaborative cross-agency surveillance, community-centered protection, safe and scalable acute care, equitable access to medical countermeasures, and integrated emergency coordination.

Looking beyond the June meeting, PAHO says it will continue its long-term work with member states to strengthen national emergency preparedness plans and intersectoral coordination mechanisms at both the national and local levels. This ongoing support is designed to ensure that countries can launch timely, effective responses when extreme weather events or other public health emergencies strike, ultimately saving lives and reducing harm to vulnerable communities.

In a proactive push to evaluate the resilience and future readiness of Antigua and Barbuda’s national healthcare network, Honorable Michael Joseph – the country’s Minister of Health, Wellness, Environment and Civil Service Affairs – launched a full-day tour of key medical facilities and ongoing infrastructure projects on Wednesday.

Accompanying Minister Joseph on the inspection tour were senior government stakeholders, including Permanent Secretary Stacey Gregg-Paige, Head of Infrastructure Gary Thomas, and Telly Cornelius, a designated representative from the Ministry of Works. The interagency delegation kicked off their itinerary at the Grays Farm Dental Clinic, where Dr. Derek Marshall, head of the national Dental Unit, greeted the team and led a detailed walkthrough of the clinic’s existing operational spaces.

During talks held after the tour, participants centered their conversation on two core priorities: examining the potential for expanding the clinic’s physical footprint, and evaluating whether adding new specialized oral health services would be practical and sustainable for the facility. The on-site visit allowed officials to gather first-hand data on the clinic’s current service capacity, laying the groundwork for targeted upgrades that align with both the public’s immediate oral health needs and the ministry’s long-term strategic development goals.

Following the stop at the dental clinic, the delegation moved to inspect the government’s new morgue facility, where they received up-to-date briefings on the pace of ongoing construction works. The team closely reviewed the infrastructure’s progress, as the facility is purpose-built to bolster national pathology services and support related medical testing operations.

The tour’s next stop was the new renal care facility currently under development. Once construction wraps up and the facility opens to patients, it is projected to dramatically transform renal care delivery across the country, creating more comfortable treatment environments and expanding access to life-sustaining dialysis services for patients in need.

Officials also received progress updates on the construction of the new CARE Project facility, a flagship government initiative focused on expanding care and support services for children living with special needs.

Speaking after the conclusion of the tour, Minister Joseph emphasized that these on-site inspections are not isolated events, but rather part of a cross-sector nationwide program of engagement and evaluation across Antigua and Barbuda’s health sector. He underlined that the government’s top priority is ensuring all public healthcare facilities are properly resourced with cutting-edge equipment, developed in line with long-term strategic planning, and fully equipped to meet both the current and future healthcare demands of the population.

To date, the Ministry of Health, Wellness, Environment and Civil Service Affairs has reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to expanding and modernizing the country’s healthcare infrastructure, with the end goal of improving equitable access to high-quality medical services for every resident of Antigua and Barbuda.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has quietly emerged as one of the fastest-growing public health threats across the globe, and a new landmark research series published in *The Lancet* is sounding the alarm over the need for urgent, coordinated action. Among the leading international experts contributing to this pivotal work is Dr. Lori-Ann Fisher, a consultant nephrologist, intensivist and lecturer based at the Epidemiology Research Unit of the Caribbean Institute for Health Research (CAIHR) at The University of the West Indies (The UWI).

Led by Dr. Jennifer Lees of the University of Glasgow, the multi-paper series frames CKD as a rapidly escalating global health crisis, and calls for sweeping improvements in three core areas: early diagnosis, preventive care, and accessible treatment. In her commentary on the research, Lees emphasized that CKD remains one of the most underaddressed, high-impact conditions affecting global populations today. “The overriding message from our series of research papers is that there remains a pressing need for attention and resources to be focused on this condition,” Lees noted.

Current global health data underscores the scale of the problem: CKD is already the ninth leading cause of death worldwide, affecting an estimated 844 million people across all income regions. Projections from the study indicate that without targeted intervention, CKD will climb to become the fifth leading cause of global death by 2040. What makes this burden even more striking is the widespread gap in diagnosis: even as cases rise, CKD remains vastly underdetected, a gap that is particularly acute in low- and middle-income regions such as the Caribbean, where public awareness and routine screening infrastructure remain limited.

For the Caribbean, the CKD burden carries uniquely severe consequences. Data from the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey shows that roughly 15% of Jamaicans are currently living with CKD, and a large share of those patients are already diagnosed at advanced or high-risk stages of the disease. For Fisher, who has spent years researching CKD epidemiology across the region, the path to better outcomes hinges entirely on earlier detection. In the Caribbean, access to life-saving interventions like kidney transplants and long-term dialysis is severely limited, making early intervention far more critical than in better-resourced regions. “We now have accessible medications that treat kidney disease and reduce progression to kidney failure,” Fisher explained. “In the Caribbean, where access to transplant and dialysis is limited, detecting kidney disease early is crucial to improve outcomes. Investment in strengthening healthcare systems to detect and treat kidney disease is paramount for the health of our nations.”

One of the core barriers to early detection that the study highlights is CKD’s asymptomatic progression. In early and moderate stages, most patients experience no obvious symptoms, leading to delayed testing and treatment that often only begins once the disease has reached its most severe stages, when organ replacement therapy is already the only viable option. The research confirms that simple, low-cost urine and blood tests can effectively diagnose CKD in its early stages, but routine implementation of these screenings remains inconsistent across most national healthcare systems.

Fisher’s participation in this landmark global publication is far from an isolated contribution; it reflects The UWI’s decades-long commitment to addressing pressing regional and global health challenges through rigorous research and evidence-based policy advocacy. As a specialist with deep expertise in CKD epidemiology, sickle cell nephropathy, and lupus nephritis in the Caribbean context, Fisher has built a career advancing understanding of CKD prevalence and associated risk factors across Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. She currently also serves as Chair of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) North America and Caribbean Regional Board, working to amplify the region’s voice in global kidney health priority-setting.

Now in its 76th year of operation, The UWI has grown from its 1948 founding as a small London-affiliated university college in Jamaica with just 33 medical students into a world-class, globally recognized institution serving nearly 50,000 students across five physical campuses and a global online network. Today, the university’s campuses include Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda, and its fully online Global Campus, with additional research and academic partnerships with leading institutions across North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Offering more than 1,000 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs across fields ranging from creative arts and engineering to law, medical sciences, and social policy, The UWI stands as the Caribbean’s leading academic institution, home to the region’s largest concentration of research expertise focused on solving the most critical challenges facing Caribbean and global communities. Since 2018, The UWI has held a consistent place in *Times Higher Education* (THE) annual global university rankings, and it remains the only English-speaking Caribbean institution to be featured across four of THE’s most prestigious ranking categories: the World University Rankings, which evaluate more than 2,000 leading research-focused universities globally; the Golden Age University Rankings for institutions founded between 50 and 80 years ago; the Latin America and Caribbean Rankings; and the Impact Rankings, which assess universities based on their contributions to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This global recognition has also supported the launch of the university’s International School for Development Justice (ISDJ), a global online graduate business school focused on training the next generation of leaders to advance equitable sustainable development. As an SDG-engaged university consistently ranked among the world’s top institutions for impact, The UWI continues to center pressing public health challenges like CKD at the core of its research mission.